Commissioned by DanceEast, Arthur Pita, in collaboration with HeadSpaceDance, presented the world première of Stepmother/ Stepfather, "a wickedly gruesome and darkly surreal" double bill, at Jerwood DanceHouse, Ipswich late October 2016.
The production will return for a national tour, visiting six cities across the UK including seven nights at The Place, London (1 to 7 March 2017).
Stepmother leads audiences into a menacing world where macabre folklore meets the terrifyingly grotesque. Fairy tales distort into nightmares as familiar characters from Snow White to Hansel and Gretel are pursued by a force of monstrous and abusive stepmothers.
Pita’s 2007 work The Stepfather, which tells the grisly tale of a twisted family situation inspired by the folk punk "Country Death Song" from cult American band Violent Femmes and was originally commissioned by CandoCo, is re-imagined for the second piece.
HeadSpaceDance performers Christopher Akril, Jonathan Goddard and Clemmie Sveaas, will be joined by Corey Annand (title role in The Little Match Girl, Grete in The Metamorphosis), Valentina Golfieri (The Little Match Girl), Nathan Goodman (Richard Alston Company) and Nadia Adame (CandoCo’s The Stepfather).
Directed and choreographed by Arthur Pita, The Stepfather has original design by Simon Daw, lighting design by Lucy Carter and sound composition by Frank Moon (The Little Match Girl, The Metamorphosis).